My Best Friend
by Austra
Summary: Cat and Mush are best friends. They do almost everything together. Then, out of the blue, Cat gets sick and then vanishes mysteriously, and Mush discovers for the first time that she really is his best friend.
1. Chapter 1: A Contest of Papes

**This has absolutely NO connection to my other stories. I hope you like it! No accent is going to be attempted. **

**Title: April Fools.**

**Chapter One: Contest of Papes**

**Cat's POV:**

I grabbed my papes and ran off to find a good selling spot. Mush, of course, was close on my heels and quickly caught up to me.

"I got seventy papes," he announced almost childishly. "How many did you get?"

"Seventy," I replied shortly, and began screaming out a headline.

Mush instantly followed suit.

And the contest to see who could sell the most the fastest, began.

0o0o0o0o0o0

I had sold forty papes, and I decided to stop for lunch.

I walked at my usual moderate pace to Tibby's and was not surprised to find all of the other newsies already there.

I was usually the last one in.

They were, as usual, talking about their "goil"s and how many papes they'd sold, and what they were going to do with their money, etc. It was like a big family. Of boys.

"Hey, who's _your_ new fella, Cat?" Race called over to me.

I'm sure _I _don't know why, but it had become almost a tradition, and a very big joke, to ask me who my _lover_ was.

Because I never had one.

"Hey fellas, I think it's Mush!" crowed Snipeshooter.

Mush, who had been making his way over to sit with me and to, no doubt, tell me how many papes he'd sold, stopped quickly and suddenly took a great interest in his sandwich.

I noted, with interest, that his ears were a brilliant shade of pink.

The teasing instantly began.

"Oooh, Mu-ush's got a new broad!"

"Hey Ca-at, sweet on Mushy, are ya?"

And the catcalls began.

Thankfully, however, a waiting girl came over and told them to "shut up, you're away business!".

Then they stopped, that sport apparently being over for the day, and started discussing what they were going to do with their money.

I remained silent.

Unlike most of the others, I didn't have a particular ambition for my money or for my life except to keep alive and off the streets.

After I was finished with my roll and cold potato, I rushed back out again, Mush following cautiously.

"I've sold thirty," he whispered to me. "How many-"

"Forty. Er, forty-one." I amended, as I sold one.

He blinked, and sold one too. "Thirty-one."

"Forty-two."

"Thirty-two."

"Forty-three."

"I give up! You win. I guess." And he flounced off.

"Yay." I said sarcastically to the world in general.

0o0o0o0o0o0

When I had _finally_ finished selling my papes (the day seemed to drag on longer than usual), I went tiredly back to the Lodging House.

I felt strange- more tired than I usually did, for one thing, and a little dizzy and cold, but I didn't mention it to anyone. I just went straight to the bunkroom and washed up.

Then I started to cross the room to get to my bed.

However, my vision started getting foggier and foggier, and just as it had almost overcome me I vaguely heard someone from a mile away, say anxiously, "Cat, are you all right?"

Then strong arms around me- then- nothing.

**Well, there you have it! Please, please, please drop me a line, even if it's just one word! Like, "Awful" or "Terrible" or if you think it, "Nice" or "Good". **

**Thanks for reading!**

**-Austra.**


	2. Chapter 2: Just a Little Fever

**Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Just a Little Fever**

**Third Person [Normal POV]**

Cat laid in her bed, tossing and turning and yelling things from time to time. "Mmmff- AH!- if you do- mmmfff- I'll kill you!"

Mush, who watched over her, was rather shocked. Cat _never _threatened violence. Well, OK, once she _had _threatened to chop all Race's cigars up, when she lost a bet. And once she'd- but anyway, the point was, Cat just wasn't the type to threaten violence. So it was rather shocking.

Racetrack, of course, was cynical. "I always knew," he remarked, "that deep down inside, Cat was a very violent person."

"_Was_?" -Mush, with a concerned expression.

Race ignored him and continued, "Yes, even when she played poker- and lost poker- with that serene expression, I always knew she wanted to kill me."

"Who doesn't?" Muttered Mush; Race's "was" was still bothering him.

Jack got up from the table he was currently residing on in a half-lying-down position and yawned. "Oh, Mushy, loverboy, don't get so excited. It's just a little _fever, _for- for goodness' sake!" (He remembered at the last minute that this was a kids' story.)

Mush bristled. "Loverboy, is it? What about Saaaaraaah?" He rolled his eyes and fluttered his eyelashes, and said, in a quavering falsetto, "Oh, Jack, darling, _don't _leave me and go to Santa Fe!" Then he changed his voice to a fake deep one, and emphasized his "d"s, like Jack, "Oh _d_arling, I woul_d_ never _d_o _d_at! But I always break me promises, _d_on't forget _d_at."

Jack threw a pillow at him. Kloppman, sitting by Cat's bed, frowned at him admonishingly. "Actually, boys, I hate ta break it to ya- it may be worse than 'just a little fever'."

0o0o0o0o0

The next day, Cat was gone. Disappeared. Without a trace.

Kloppman shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know where she's gone."

Mush was almost frantic with worry. For the next week, he only sold about twenty papes a day. Most of the time he was searching for Cat.

When Kloppman introduced another newsie to them- a scrawny boy called "Panther", Mush barely looked at him. "Hello," He mumbled before stumbling off to bed.

He didn't hear the young boy ask Kloppman, "What's the matter with _him_?"

And he didn't he Kloppman's reply, "We used to have a girl newsie here called Cat. When she disappeared a couple days ago, he nearly went wild with worry for her."

"Oh." Panther shrugged. "Where do I sleep?"

"In the bunkroom, with the other boys."

"Oh." Panther went up the steps slowly, as if contemplating something. Suddenly he stopped. "Kloppman," he began, then broke off. Then he began again, "I don't sleep so good- in a bed. Is it all right if I go out on the roof sometimes?"

Kloppman waved a hand. "Sure, sure, whatever."

"Thanks, Kloppy," the new newsie said absently, continuing his ascent.

"_Kloppy_?" Kloppman shook his head. "He's not a day here and already he's calling me Kloppy."

0o0o0o0

I plunked my stuff down on a bed and thought some more. Then I took my bag and went out on the roof.

"Ah." I said to myself. "There."

My old sleeping spot. I smiled fondly; nobody had ever known about all those nights, and nobody had ever known about her little "bedroom".

The shed on the roof would be a great relief, I knew. How wonderful to be able to go about my business without the botheration of worrying about someone discovering my secret.

So my double life would begin


	3. Chapter 3: Winter

And so, where we last left off, Mush was generally in the way of miserability, and Cat - or Panther, as we must now call her - was generally in the way of sneaky, devious behavior.

Mush barely glanced at Panther the next morning when Jack assigned Mush the job of showing Panther how to sell papes.

Nobody noticed that Panther pulled his cap down lower over his face and refused to look at Mush as they headed out the door. Nobody was singing; it was the dead of winter, and the only sound you could hear was that of coughing.

Jack was wearing a worried crease between his brows; although he himself was not sick, he was frustrated with himself. His newsies seemed to be dropping like flies, sickening and dying. Different types of diseases were taking them; but fevers seemed most frequent - always accompanied with a horrid, hacking cough.

Les and Tumbler didn't have to fake their cute little coughs any longer; and they weren't cute, either. Les, at least, had a family to take care of him, but Tumbler was definitely not going to make it through this winter.

Of course, nobody dared to mention anything of the sort to Skittery, who fiercely held onto the hope - the seeming conviction - that Tumbler would pull through. Mush was the only one who knew of the lurking doubts in in Skittery's mind - he alone had seen the tears shed in the dead of night. And for once, Skittery knew he could trust Mush to keep his secret and not blab all over the place. Skittery knew how Mush had been hurting since Cat had left. They made a silent agreement not to speak of it again, and, boy-like, kept their doubts and agonies to themselves.

And whilst Mush agonized for yet another day, Panther agonized beside him. She felt terrible for what she was doing, now that she realised exactly how wrong she'd been, but she couldn't help it. What was done was done, she told herself sternly. Cat no longer existed. Panther was here to stay now, and nobody may ever find out his true identity.

It was fairly easy today to keep any of them from becoming curious. They were all so preoccupied, and it wasn't like anybody cared anyway (or so she told herself), that none of them gave her a second glance.

Well, until she started selling. She sort of forgot that she was a new newsie and began to scream out headlines in her usual exaggerated manner. Mush stared at her until she realised that she had better be more careful and not give herself away. After that, she sold more quietly - thus resulting in less papers sold than she normally could have.

With a frustrated sigh, she took off her cap and ran her fingers through her short, choppy hair. She was dying to talk to Mush, but what if he recognized her voice? Where was the talkative Mush of old, anyway? Why wasn't he bothering her, pestering her to the point of tempting her to shove his face into a pie? She didn't know this new, silent Mush.

Panther and Mush began the silent walk back to the Lodging House, trying to use their remaining papers to keep warm. Dirty snow lay thick on the ground, and all around them they saw the pained, icy coldness of children on the streets. Mush paused on the road to tear some of his newspaper and stuff it in his boot. Panther remembered - but no. It wasn't Panther remembering how Mush had gotten that hole in his boot. It was Cat. Cat was remembering the time when Mush's boot had gotten torn on a nail when he'd been saving her from the fire...

Gah! Panther couldn't even think straight. Why on earth was she even entertaining thoughts of speaking to him? What on earth would be the purpose or gain in that? She made her mind up quite sturdily that she would not utter a sound.

And yet, just after she made her firm resolution to say nothing, the words tumbled out of her mouth: "Tough day, huh?"


End file.
